Mastodawn

QuincyOtter Jan 26

Soatok Dreamseeker

Today is Day 3158.

We who can still review our own code without outsourcing our critical thinking skills to a LLM are few and far between.

Cell phones have become completely useless due to a mix of Generative AI-assisted robocalling and tech recruiters desperate for a mind unmuddled by the psychosis that AI wrought upon humanity. My phone rings; I don't answer.

The corporate news media has become unrecognizable in the past 3 years.

I almost miss hearing that the Constitution has just been successfully overturned by the Republican Party. They're discussing their plans for slavery and genocide with a matter-of-fact voice. Naturally, I'm on the list of targets, but there is no escape.

This was all normalized in the 2020s, because resisting authoritarianism was too inconvenient, and we believed the AI-generated slop that polluted our culture.

The machines didn't have to rise up to destroy us. We fell into our own shadow.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

My phone rings again. A family member, allegedly. I know better, of course.

A moment later, a voicemail appears in my inbox. "Curious, I disabled that."

I slide my phone into a Faraday cage without a second thought.

"Must be another government-sanctioned zero-click exploit, meant to snitch on my location so ICE can whisk me away to a black site," I think aloud as I pack my belongings. Better tell the safehouse operators to lay low for the next few weeks.

On the way to the bus station, a stranger begs me for bitcoin and holds up a QR code on his phone. I pause for a moment, and offer him $10 in cash. He frowns and calls me a slur as he walks away. His buddies around the corner, ready to jump me to try to steal a cryptocurrency wallet I do not have, sigh as they move onto another mark.

I sigh as well, staring at the floor as the bus begins to move. The person next to me is making cute faces to post on Meta's new social media platform.

I forget the name. I refuse to use it, all the same.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

As the bus reaches city limits, government thugs swarm it for their routine check. Everyone tenses up, passports in hand, as they prepare to answer a litany of questions about why they're headed from Hartford to Boston today.

Today, their wrath is focused on a five year old child that cannot stop crying. The agent pulls his sidearm and shoves it in the mother's eye socket, screaming loudly to shut her "crotch goblin" up before he paints the bus window with both of their brains.

Nobody says anything to stop them. Everyone is too afraid.

ICE is the only authority anywhere these days.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

"Why are you traveling to Boston?" the thug eyes me suspiciously.

"Work," I respond clearly.

"What do you do for work?" he asks as he scans my passport and takes a photo of my face.

"Prompter," I lie convincingly. "Are you interested in what the latest Claude model can do?"

He hands me my ID back and then asks the social media influencer next to me.

"You an onlyfans girl?" he asks without regard for his own routine.

"N-no," she says nervously. She must not be used to this.

"Well if you change your mind," he begins.

He thinks he's flirting. But it's hard to flirt with someone with an AR-15 hanging from your vest and a license to use it with absolute impunity.

The first of many checkpoints is cleared.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

The news playing on the TV when I arrive is the same slop we've all become accustomed to. Quick bursts of rapid-fire quips meant to demoralize the hopeful and stimulate the hateful in between falsehoods and slop. Nobody cares for facts anymore. It's easier to keep the flood of government approved lies flowing.

As I make my way through the mandatory electronic device screening to enter the city, I overhear the incident that took place on the 5 AM bus.

13 dead. 0 accountability. All because someone talked back to an ICE agent that threatened a toddler.

President whatshisname has already declared the victims domestic terrorists. Larry Ellison's lackeys already warped their 10 years of post history with their AI. Manufactured consent is commonplace; they don't even try to hide it anymore.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

At the next safehouse, I boot up the Live DVD hidden in my music CD collection and begin the ritual of recovering my accounts as I eye the window nervously.

It won't be long before I hack into every webcam in a mile radius here, too, so I can know when they're coming for me.

As I begin unraveling my security protocols, news starts pouring into my encrypted feed from the Old Patriots who still believe in liberal democracy and want to return to how things used to be.

With some trepidation, I scan the list of confirmed victims' handles. I don't recognize anyone this time.

I send coded messages to a few friends. They respond back affirmatively. Our messages self-delete shortly afterwards.

None of them know the real me. I don't know the real them. We don't even know each others' actual handles. Compartmentalization is necessary for survival.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

"You must be the fixer," the CTO of the medical device company greets me hurriedly at the diner.

"Right," I begin, asking about what hell their language model has unleashed on their product design.

After explaining the problem (software emulation works great, but the damn thing falls apart in real hardware), he hands me an employee ID card with a fake name and the job title of "intern".

I make a face, not sure how to feel.

"Sorry, it's the best I can do right now. They're watching our contractor registry, too."

I smile. "It's okay," I reassure him. There is no pride in survival. And I know he's good for the money. He was a hold-out on LLMs too, for as long as he could be.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

Day 3211. My "internship" has ended, so it's time to find a new place to lay low.

The only thing I use LLMs for is to populate my hard drive with plausible artifacts of normal activity.

Too much downtime from Live DVDs is suspicious, and we no longer have Constitutional rights to protect us.

Luckily for me, leaving Boston is a little easier than getting here. Not much, but a little.

Of course, nothing in life is free, as the folks living in Salt Lake City would find out. Nothing says Evangelical Christian Love like rounding up all the gays and shooting them twice in the skull. The vice president is making a big, congratulatory speech about it. One of my close friends is killed, but I won't hear about it until I arrive in Portland.

The man sitting next to me is glued to his smartphone. "Serves 'em right," he mutters at the government sanctioned murder. In my ignorance of loss, I only ignore him.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

Day 3213.

I didn't have time to mourn. I have a client to meet.

Is it another company that needs rescuing from their self-inflicted AI woes? Of course it is.

This time it's a Meta subsidiary. My contact is insufferable. He won't shut up about "both sides" and how things would be so much worse if we didn't get all the trans people out of women's sports.

I ask him who his favorite female basketball player is. He doesn't answer, but his Alexa device helpfully lists the ones with the largest social media presences.

I take it as a small victory, knowing he's going to short me 20% of the advertised contract amount.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

(End of story.)

Apropos of nothing, every day between now and November is a good day to find people in your communities to mobilize to get registered to vote and secure the necessary ID to vote.

https://www.voteriders.org

We already know the GOP's plans for voter suppression. Every person you help to get to the polls so their vote is actually counted makes their job that much harder.

VoteRiders: Voter ID Help

VoteRiders provides free information and help with voter ID in all US states. We can help you make sure you have the ID you need to vote!

VoteRiders

Scott Francis Jan 26

@soatok grim but gripping storytelling here — thanks ❤️

@soatok I... keep waiting for the "speculative" part of this.

...Frosty! ❄️🦊Jan 27

@soatok I’m so glad MA doesn’t depend on voter ID. You just state your street address and name at the polling place, they hand you a ballot, and they cross you off a list. Same after turning in the ballot on the other side.

SkylerBold Jan 29

@soatok This was very good Soatok, and also absolutely horrifying. You write very well (but I have known that from your blog posts).

Irenes (many)Jan 26

@soatok sigh if it comes to that, it comes to that and we'll do what it takes. thanks for the story, it feels grounding.

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

@ireneista Hear hear. But this is an avoidable outcome. Let's hope for the best.

Irenes (many)Jan 26

@soatok absolutely. hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Irenes (many)Jan 26

@soatok if the level of leaderless organization in Minnesota can be replicated everywhere, we've got this.

@soatok This sounds like later seasons of Mr. Robot

Soatok Dreamseeker Jan 26

@exec Hmm, you have a point

Ben The Musing Meerkat Jan 26

@soatok I wish this was a dystopian fiction, sadly we know all too well what the truth is.

Orange Lizard Girlthing Jan 26

@soatok The fact that this sounds like something that could easily happen in the US tommorow is honestly terrifying.

(Also what a day to be extremely squeamish about eyes, though I guess that does help emphasize the point a lot.)

Insecurity Princess 🌈💖🔥Jan 26